Notre Dame hands Robbinsville historic loss with 16-0 rout
LAWRENCE TWP. » Here’s all you need to know about how much fun red-hot Notre Dame (11-2) had in handing Robbinsville the worst defeat in the history of its program in a 16-0 rout of the Ravens Monday afternoon.
When Irish pitcher Rylee Michalak came to the plate with her team already ahead 8-0 and the bases loaded in the third inning, coach Marty Schafer told her: “We don’t need a grand slam. A line drive will do.”
So what did Michalak do? She hit a grand slam, of course.
Yes, it was that kind of a day in which there was some bad blood as defending state champion Robbinsville (85) wasn’t at all happy when Notre Dame was still stealing second base and attempting a suicide squeeze with a 13-0 lead in a game halted after three and a half innings.
“They canceled our game against them last year and then they went out and played somebody else,” explained Schafer. “Our girls were upset about that. They were excited to play them today.”
While it would certainly be intriguing to see what would happen if these two meet up in the Mercer County Tournament, there was no question about what transpired on Monday.
This was a total massacre, starting with Notre Dame scoring five runs in a first inning in which it stole five bases and got got runs home on squeeze bunts by Christa Andrusiewicz and Bella Antosiewicz.
After two more runs followed in the second on a tworun homer by Andrusiewicz, Notre Dame really poured it on with nine in the third. This inning featured the grand slam by Michalak as well as a three-run homer by Emma Marchese that put the 15-run rule in effect.
Andrusiewicz ended up 3-for-3 with three RBIs, Marchese had two hits and four RBIs and Alayna Giampolo drove in three runs.
While all of this was going on, Michalak mowed down Robbinsvile with a no-hitter and eight strikeouts in just four innings of work.
What’s amazing is in Notre Dame’s first 11 games of the season it hit no home runs. Now it has four in last two games. And the girls (Michalak, Andrusiewicz and Marchese) who hit the homers against Robbinsville all happen to be the team’s pitchers.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” said Schafer. “Everyone said we are a small-ball team and now we are hitting all these home runs.”
Following its solid victory over Hunterdon Central Saturday, it looked like Robbinsville might be back on track after a rough stretch.
Instead, the Ravens have now lost five of their last seven games and must recover from their first regularseason loss by the run rule in at least the last 12 years. Robbinsville (8-5) 000 0 — 0 0 3
Notre Dame (11-2) 529 x — 16 10 0 WP-Michalak. LP-Krebs. HR- Michalak, Andrusiewicz, Marchese. RBIs: Andrusiewicz 3, Cleo, Antosiewicz, Marchese 4, Giampolo.